Harvard philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002 ) developed a conception of justice as fairness in his now classic work A Theory of Justice . Using elements of both Kantian and utilitarian philosophy, he has described a method for the moral evaluation of social and political institutions.

Imagine that you have set for yourself the task of developing a totally new social contract for today's society. How could you do so fairly? Although you could never actually eliminate all of your personal biases and prejudices, you would need to take steps at least to minimize them. Rawls suggests that you imagine yourself in an original position behind a veil of ignorance . Behind this veil, you know nothing of yourself and your natural abilities, or your position in society. You know nothing of your sex, race, nationality, or individual tastes. Behind such a veil of ignorance all individuals are simply specified as rational, free, and morally equal beings. You do know that in the "real world", however, there will be a wide variety in the natural distribution of natural assets and abilities, and that there will be differences of sex, race, and culture that will distinguish groups of people from each other.

In this original position , behind the veil of ignorance, what will the rational choice be for fundamental principles of society? The only safe principles will be fair principles, for you do not know whether you would suffer or benefit from the structure of any biased institutions. Indeed the safest principles will provide for the highest minimum standards of justice in the projected society.

To use a more mundane illustration, imagine that you had the task of determining how to divide a cake fairly among a group of individuals. What rule or method should govern the cutting? A simple one would be to let the person who does the cutting receive the last piece. This would lead that person to cut all pieces as equally as possible in order to receive the best remaining share....

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...﻿Philosophy 120
Second Paper Assignment
Question 1
The question at hand is distributive justice. How should income, wealth, basics rights, liberty and power be distributed in a sovereign state, according to what principles? John Rawls refers to this as a social contract and offers a detail answer to that question. In this essay I will examine and assess Rawls answer to that question and then analyze his theory of the veil of ignorance in regards to my own ideas and beliefs. Before discussing Rawls the Original Position, we must first define Justice. According to Rawls, “justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.” In other words, Rawls believes that justice is a set of rules or principles people would agree to under all conditions of fairness and equality. Webster’s dictionary has two definitions of justice, one states, justice, “is the process or results of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals,” while the other define justice as “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair.”
The original position is a hypothetical scenario developed by John Rawls. In this made up world, the people are entering a social contract and would be held responsible for selecting a set of principles of justice that will govern the basic structure of society. But wait, there’s a catch. The people would...

...A Theory of Justice
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A Theory of Justice
A Theory of Justice.jpg
The 1999 Harvard University Press edition
Author(s)
John Rawls
Country
United States
Language
English
Subject(s)
Political philosophy
Genre(s)
Non-fiction
Publisher
Belknap
Publication date
1971
Media type
Print
Pages
560
ISBN
0-674-00078-1
OCLC Number
41266156
Dewey Decimal
320/.01/1 21
LC Classification
JC578 .R38 1999
A Theory of Justice is a work of political philosophy and ethics by John Rawls. It was originally published in 1971 and revised in both 1975 (for the translated editions) and 1999. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls attempts to solve the problem of distributive justice (the socially just distribution of goods in a society) by utilising a variant of the familiar device of the social contract. The resultant theory is known as "Justice as Fairness", from which Rawls derives his two principles of justice: the liberty principle and the difference principle.
Contents
1 Objective
2 The “original position”
3 The First Principle of Justice
4 The Second Principle of Justice
5 Relationship to Rawls' later work
6 Criticism
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
Objective[edit]
In A...

...Distributive Justice
In every nation, there are all sorts of issues within the society that can sometimes be resolved more easily or quickly than others. However, an issue like immigration is somewhat challenging and complex to many rich or more developed countries worldwide. As for the United States, the issue of undocumented immigrants has been one of the major problems that leaves the society with significant questions of justice: from whether the U.S. government immigration laws are just or unjust, to the question of immigration status that should or should not be legalized. All these kinds of questions are difficult to come to the right conclusion that would favor every single person, simply because of the fact that everybody has different opinions and perspectives on just about anything. There are generally passionate people on all sides. So for this reason, if we all had the same viewpoints going in the same direction, those questions of justice would never exist and become a complicated topic for discussion in the first place. And the reality is that, this issue of distributive justice of immigration still remains unsolved and unfinished. People all have their own ideas on the discussion and some bring in principles of justice from philosophical viewpoints to be a guide to conclude of how this problem can possibly be solved and how the society should turn out, based on their theories and...

...Rawls Theory of Justice
A contemporary philosopher, John Rawls (1921-2002), is noted for his contributions to political and moral philosophy. In particular, Rawls' discussion about justice introduced five important concepts into discourse, including: the two principles of justice, the “original position” and “veil of ignorance”. Rawls most famous work is, A Theory of Justice (1971) gives an introduction to this body of thought and he emphasises the importance justice has on governing and organising a society.
The problem arises by defining what the term means theoretically. One of two definitions can be used, the first being definition based on ones merit or lack thereof. This “merit theory” of justice uses merit to decide how an individual of the society will be treated based on the contribution to the society. The other is the “need theory” of justice where is it assumed every individual should help those in need or who are less privileged.
Attempting to balance the demands posed by these rival theories, Rawls maintained that inequalities in society can only be justified if they produce increased benefits for the entire society and only if those previously the most disadvantaged members of society are no worse off as a result of any inequality. An inequality, then, is justified if it contributes to social utility, as the merit theory asserts. But, at the same time,...

...not been in existence for the past few thousand years. We have no ancestors to direct us, no rules to follow, and no experience to guide us. Imagine that we have not even come to be yet. Consider for a moment that society has yet to be established. Assume there are hypothetical homunculi with the sole task of devising the goals, the guiding light, for society. How would societal goals be designed so they are fair and just for all?
In what follows, I will attempt to portray the philosophy of John Rawls with regard to the theory of societal justice. My aim is convey Rawls’ conception of justice. I will discuss his original position of equality and how the essential veil of ignorance collaborates with the original position to arrive at a societal ground zero. I will also address the two principles that Rawls believe would emerge from the original position to guide a just society.
Rawls aspires to investigate and present a conception of justice. He believes that, in order to create a just society, we must begin in a hypothetical place with no predetermined conceptions of social or economic status. No person would know his place in society, or what social or economic class he fits into. No one would be aware of his own intelligence or abilities. Further still, no person would know what assets or disadvantages were distributed to him by chance, generation, or inheritance. This hypothetical position of unknowing would create an...

...Apply the theory of social justice proposed by John Rawls to analyze the social and economic system of Hong Kong and assess whether the system in Hong Kong meets the basic principles proposed by John Rawls.
Introduction
In this world of high income and social disparity between countries, cities, or even within the domestic territory, social justice seems remote and unachievable. To John Rawls, however, social justice is in fact realistically utopian and it is achievable.
The most influential theory that he proposed as well as the theory that he is primarily known for, is his theory of Justice as Fairness. In his theory, a society where social justice is done, should consist of free and equal persons. The citizens should possess political and personal liberties, enjoy equal opportunity and cooperative arrangements that benefit the more and the less advantaged members of society. Thus, according to John Rawls, individuals are regarded as equal and their society is considered as a fair system as long as they are cooperating with each other to make life better off, from one generation to the next.
Two fundamental principles, the Equal Liberty Principle and Difference Principle are derived from John Rawls’ theory of social justice. The two basic principles, which represent the core value of John Rawls’ theory of social justice, serve as the tool to...

...The concept of justice has been the focus of normative political theory over the past 50 years, and John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971) is widely seen as the most important attempt during that period to articulate a set of institutions and distributional outcomes that rational individuals would see as legitimate. Rawls’ seminal work has spawned a veritable critical industry since its publication (Miller, 1999). His elaboration of his project and restatement of his theory of “justice as fairness” (Rawls, 2001) promise to sustain interest in his ideas.
This essay is an attempt to critically discuss and analyze John Rawls’ (1921-2002) conception of justice. It seeks to also answer the question of what led him to perceive justice in the way that he did. In order to achieve this, a thorough introductory exposition of Rawls theory will be carried out citing its content with the use of relevant definitions and examples. A conclusion will then be drawn from the discourse.
This essay therefore recognizes that Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness is thus an egalitarian theory of moral conduct which applies to all the obligations which individuals have toward each other. It further perceives it as a deontological (that is, it is one which states that the moral content of an action is not wholly dependent on its consequences) rather than a teleological theory (that...

...frameworks are the outcome of human political processes and they constantly change both across societies and within societies over time. This economic distribution of benefits and burdens affect the people’s lives. Arguments about which framework and resulting distributions are morally preferable, constitutes the topic of Distributive Justice. Also whenever we read about Justice, we always come crossway the word “Distributive Justice”. This notion of Distributive Justice was widely discussed by John Rawls in his various books. According to him, Distributive Justice is the justice in the distribution of wealth and goods. He also talked about end-state conceptions of distributive justice which says that there is some overall pattern of distribution we should aim at. He further said that Justice is a matter of closeness to the desired pattern. Distributive justice, a theory based on writings of John Rawls, has a major attention of distributing assets fairly among a dynamic and diverse group of members from a community. Rawls said that men have a right to equal respect and concern in the design of political institutions. Principles of Distributive Justice are therefore best thought of as providing moral guidance for the political processes and structures that affect the distribution of economic benefits and burdens in societies.
When our...